Monday, March 31, 2014

Artist of the Week: Christopher Rush

I feel as if it is now about time we feature the artist who has created the art for the most widely known and most powerful card ever printed: Christopher Rush. He provided art for none other than... What? No, not Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Jason Chan did the art for that and we just featured him last week. No, Christopher Rush did the art for none other than the Black Lotus.

Black Lotus

Modern Mondays: Improved Red/White Burn

After getting third place at an FNM with my original Red/White burn deck, I decided to make modifications to it in order to make it faster and make it even more "modern."

This, of course, means including cards such as Path to Exile.

Path to Exile

Pyrophoros (U/R Tokens)

When Theros came out I ran in to a problem. I had built a "Power Summer" B/W Humans Deck and that left me deckless going into Theros. This issue lead me to many brews that I now have hidden somewhere in my computer. While delving through my files I found the little mine that was those deck ideas. U/R Token is one of the many decks that I found in that file.


Quite Shocking
The deck has one main goal, get Purphoros, God of the Forge out on the field and pump out an obscene amount of tokens to shock your opponent to death.

Creatures

x4 Young Pyromancer
x4 Purphoros, God of the Forge
x4 Frostburn Weird
x3 Master of Waves
x2 Goblin Electromancer
x2 Omen Speaker

Land

x4 Steam Vents
x11 Mountain
x10 Island

Other Spells

x4 Molten Birth
x4 Dissolve
x2 Cyclonic Rift
x2 Magma Jet
x2 Curse of the Swine
x2 Rapid Hybridization

Purphoros
Purphoro, God of the Forge is the main win condition brought by this deck. Many of the cards in the deck help get Purphoros, God of the Forge to trigger. This deck is not meant to use Purphoros as a creature, but as an enchantment that shock for each creature or as a way to pump your army for lethal. 
Token Engine
This deck has the capability to have a very large amount of token get onto the battlefield. It take advantage of mass token producers which include:
  • Young Pyromancer - The Deck is host to a large amount of instants and sorceries (16) that help Young Pyromancer trigger. These tokens are then either used for: being fed into Curse of the Swine to make them bigger or get more damage from Purphoros, to get more Purphoros triggers, swarming your opponent with 1/1s, or using the elemental tokens produced by itself to be pumped by Master of Waves for a more aggressive plan.   
  • Master of Waves - This deck does not have many cards that help your Blue devotion (Frostburn Weird, Goblin Electromancer, Master of Waves, and Omen Speaker) though what blue devotion it does have it uses to make Master of Waves: Make a large amount of tokens for an aggressive game plan, use the many creatures entering the battlefield from Master of Waves to trigger Purphoros, or use the elemental pump effect to boost the tokens made by Young Pyromancer.
  • Curse of the Swine - Curse of the Swine is used as removal as it was meant to or in a more unorthodox manner by recycling already existing creature to either make them    larger (turn 1/1s and 2/1s into 2/2s) or get more Purphoros Triggers.
  • Molten Birth - Molten Birth is very good at making elementals (we care about that) which can just further absurd amount of creatures.  
  • Rapid Hybridization - It is great straight-up removal for one mana in these colors, also can be used to pump smaller creatures and get more Purphoros triggers.
Creatures (non-token engine)
  • Frostburn Weird - Helps with devotion to both colors that the deck cares about, but also can just be a fantastic wall.
  • Goblin Electromancer - It makes the Instants and sorceries just better making it easier to trigger Young Pyromancer which in turn makes it easier to trigger Purphoros.
  • Omen Speaker- A nice wall that can help you get through the deck to get what you need.
Instants and Sorceries (non-token engine)
  • Dissolve - Can deal with pesky spells and helps trigger Young Pyromancer
  • Cyclonic Rift - Decent way to deal with pesky permanents and can be a great one sided board wipe, also can help trigger Young Pyromancer.
  • Magma Jet - Can be decent early removal or damage, can also help you get through you deck, and helps trigger Young Pyromancer
Final Notes
This deck can go in many different directions that all split from the same path and end in the same location. While it may be hard to get set up at first, it can easily settle down and do what it is supposed to do. Try it out maybe change it a bit, add a color, or lose a color. Do what you will with my list. Just have fun with it. Good Luck.

    Monday, March 24, 2014

    Artist of the Week: Jason Chan

    Jason Chan has done a decent amount of art for Wizards of the Coast. His earliest art for Magic can be traced back to Future Sight with art for Nimbus Maze and Pact of Negation.

    Nimbus Maze  Pact of Negation

    I'm willing to bet, however, that those cards are not what he gets the most recognition for. I think that card is actually...

    A Look at Dual Lands

    Consider for a moment the variety of dual lands... You have THE dual lands, shocklands, scry lands, pain lands, check/tap lands, gates, karoo lands, filter lands and so on... You basically get the point. But how do they stack up against each other? Are any of them truly better than others? What makes one better than the others? Let's take a look...

    So let's take a look at the comparisons of all of them:

    Monday, March 17, 2014

    Cast a Spell on MS Charity Tournament

    "Cast a Spell on MS" is a charity tournament held in Toledo, Ohio for support of Multiple Sclerosis. It will be on March 29th at the Seagate convention center.

    Events include:
    • $15 Standard main event
    • $10 Booster draft
    • $10 Eight person Win-A-Loot(Standard, Legacy, and Modern)
    • $5 Four person commander pods

    There will also be auctions and raffles going on for items such as this:
    Yes this is a foil sheet of Modern Masters
    Bring some money since this will be auctioned off and all the proceeds will go to research for MS

    For more information go to http://www.castaspellonms.org/

    Artist of the Week: Eric Deschamps

    Over the past couple of weeks, we have featured Daarken and Noah Bradley. This time, we're looking at work from Eric Deschamps, an artist who seems to have done art for an absurd number of mythic rares including planeswalkers. He also has done a decent amount of art for Theros and Born of the Gods. Let's take a look:

    Courser of Kruphix  Soldier of the Pantheon  Kiora's Follower

    Monday, March 10, 2014

    Red Battle Games is officially a sponsor for Monday Morning MTG

    So some of you may have noticed the new ad/link on the bottom of the page. Our new sponsor is a store co-owned by a friend of mine, so I'm pleased to announce that Red Battle Games in Danville, Virginia is now our sponsor.



    Artist of the Week: Daarken

    Last week, in case you missed it, we featured Noah Bradley, and specifically it was for me to keep a promise I made that I'd remind everyone about his MTGO Moat art. Of course, I couldn't decide from all the different artists over the history of Magic, so once again, I looked to Twitter, and I saw this tweet:


    Commander Monday: Nekusar, "the Taxman"

    He will help you, just go pay your taxes.

    Legendary Creatures (3)

    x1 Nekusar, the Mindrazer (Commander)
    x1 Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
    x1 Thraximundar

    Creatures (13)

    x1 Balefule Force
    x1 Balefule Strix
    x1 Echo Mage
    x1 Fate Unraveler
    x1 Fog Bank
    x1 Jace's Archivist
    x1 Laboratory Maniac
    x1 Nightscape Familiar
    x1 Perplexing Chimera
    x1 Prince of Thralls
    x1 Psychosis Crawler
    x1 Shriekmaw
    x1 Viseling

    Instants (11)

    x1 Crosis's Charm
    x1 Cyclonic Rift
    x1 Dark Ritual
    x1 Fated Return
    x1 Grixis Charm
    x1 Illusionist;s Gambit
    x1 Lim-Dul's Vault
    x1 Mystical Tutor
    x1 Starstorm
    x1 Sudden Spoiling
    x1 Vision Skeins
    x1 Wild Ricochet

    Sorceries (16)

    x1 Cruel Ultimatum
    x1 Decree of Pain
    x1 Deep Analysis
    x1 Fissure Vent
    x1 Incendiary Command
    x1 Infest
    x1 Scrambleverse
    x1 Skyscribing
    x1 Slaughter Games
    x1 Slave of Bolas
    x1 Strategic Planning
    x1 Tempt with Reflection
    x1 Thieves' Auction
    x1 Toxic Deluge
    x1 Wheel of Fortune
    x1 Whims of the Fates

    Enchantments (8)

    x1 Arcane Melee
    x1 Curse of Echoes
    x1 Curse of Shallow Graves
    x1 Liliana's Caress
    x1 Price of Knowledge
    x1 Propaganda
    x1 Spitefule Visions
    x1 Underworld Dreams

    Artifacts (12)

    x1 Black Vise
    x1 Crawlspace
    x1 Gilded Lotus
    x1 Howling Mine
    x1 Izzet Signet
    x1 Mirari
    x1 Nevinyrral's Disk
    x1 Prototype Portal
    x1 Sensei's Divining Top
    x1 Sol Ring
    x1 Swiftfoot Boots
    x1 Temple Bell

    Planeswalkers (1)

    x1 Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker

    Lands (36) 

    x1 Bojuka Bog
    x1 Command Tower
    x1 Crumbling Necropolis
    x1 Dimir Aquedect
    x1 Dimir Guildgate
    x1 Evolving Wilds
    x1 Gemstone Caverns
    x1 Izzet Boilerworks
    x1 Izzet Guildgate
    x1 Molten Slagheap
    x1 Opal Palace
    x1 Rakdos Carnarium
    x1 Rakdos Guildgate
    x1 Reliquary Tower
    x1 Rupture Spire
    x1 Temple of the False God
    x1 Vivid Creek
    x1 Vivid Marsh
    x6 Island
    x8 Swamp
    x4 Mountain

    Today I present to you my baby, Nekusar, the Mindrazer (aka "the Taxman"). It is a very simple deck, all you have to do is revel as your opponents draw some cards and you cause some chaos.

    Monday, March 3, 2014

    Modern Mondays: Red/White Burn

    When you think Red/White in Modern, you probably first think of Lightning Helix. If you think of the same thing in Standard, you'd probably think Boros Charm. When doing a deck that revolves around direct burn and you implement white in addition to red, Lightning Helix and Boros Charm are definitely the two you want.

    Lightning Helix     Boros Charm

    Playing in the "MUD"

    When you play standard at a more competitive level, there will always be decks that are at the top. Luckily, during this season, we are blessed with a diverse ecosystem of, top tier challengers from "tap Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx 4 times and get 50 mana that I will then pump into Polukranos, World Eater," to "play a bunch of black stuff while killing all of your creatures until I get a full charging Desecration Demon or cast Gray Merchant of Asphodel for lethal."



    Noah Bradley, Everyone

    So a few days ago, I noticed a tweet by Noah Bradley, one of the newer MTG artists. He's done several art pieces, many of which I like. He has brought us land art:

    Izzet Guildgate  Transguild Promenade  Boros Guildgate

    and he has brought us new art for an old favorite and art for a Standard red staple...

    Giant Growth  Mizzium Mortars